What are some good films for average student? My son goes to a very difficult private school but only has about a 3.3 average and will be taking a couple of AP’s next year. He is going into his Junior year and just took the ACT, so I don’t have a score yet. He has always wanted to go into film, but all the top schools seem harder to get into than winning the lottery. He is interested in Emerson, NYU, Chapman and North Carolina School of the Arts, but curious if there are any other programs that might be good for him to look into. Thanks for your help!
Ithaca College, great town as well.
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My son goes to a very difficult private school but only has about a 3.3 average and will be taking a couple of AP’s next year. He is going into his Junior year and just took the ACT, so I don’t have a score yet.
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does his school “weight” AP classes? If so, then his GPA will get a nice boost if he does well.
What is your budget for college costs?
Depending on your budget…there is LMU in Los Angeles and some OOS publics as well.
What is your home state?
Loyola Marymount, Syracuse, DePaul, FSU, Columbia College Chicago, SCAD
Ditto for all on lalalemma’s list, plus Temple (BA, with no portfolio requirement), UNC-Wilmington, UArts (Philly). Special points for Columbia Chicago: they have amazing facilities, and great internship opportunities, with open (or near-open admissions), so they are an ideal safety for all students interested in Arts or Media. Visit them, if you have an opportunity. They’re in a great location, and had some of the nicest student housing I’ve seen anywhere. The drawback apparently is that students will have to fight for more advanced classes later on, but they have a respectable placement and employment record for motivated kids. NYU/Tisch will base admission primarily on his portfolio, so he should start assembling one this year. A 3.3+ unweighted average will clear their academic bar if they are blown away by his talent, but the acceptance rate is lower than Harvard’s. They will probably expect a CR+M SAT over 1200, or an ACT of at least 28-29. Emerson likes high-ish scores, especially in Verbal/CR. An unweighted 3.3 is probably sufficient, but higher would be better. My son has a close friend in the Film program there, and I think his stats were probably in that range.
What does he want to do within film?
It’s a very broad field. Many kids are in that place where they’re interested in “film” because they enjoy watching film, but he’s going to get way more mileage out of his undergrad education if he pins down his career goals.
He might be best served by a non-film BA from the best overall school that he can get into, especially if he wants to write/produce/direct/act. If he wants the more technical jobs in sound/cinematography/visual effects etc., film school might be more beneficial.
San Francisco State University often appears in lists of top 20 film schools.
My son is applying right now…he’s not a stellar student, does well in classes that he likes but has struggled in some. He has a decent portfolio (we think, it’s subjective but he has had acceptable reviews from colleges). He is very devoted to film thought and I hope that has come through in his applications. He is applying to Emerson, Columbia College of Chicago, SCAD, MassArt, Lesley, MICA, CalArts, Champlain, Pratt. It’s tough to say where he will end up but he definitely wanted hands-on programs. You should definitely visit as you will get completely different feelings from different facilities. Also, although some schools have amazing reputations for film, many times it is really their graduate programs that have the reputations. I have heard that kids get little camera time at a place like USC as undergrads because so much goes to the grad school. Just food for thought.
Syracuse.
Thank you for all your great advice! We have been doing a lot of college visits. He wants to go into film production, mainly directing and screen writing. We have found out that the smaller type schools tend to have more hands on for their students right out of the gate. He is very interested in Emerson, Un of NC School of the Arts, LMU, Chapman, Un of Texas at Austin out of the ones we visited so far. We are going to visit Columbia College Chicago and DePaul in June and Ithaca and Syracuse this coming summer. In the fall we will try to hit Pratt and SVA maybe SCAD. Are we missing any other ones that we should be looking at? Tried to get a good mix of reach vs. some safer type schools in there. He is going to Emerson for the summer precollege film program. We are from the midwest (ohio) but he does not want to stay here. Am I missing any other great schools for directing/film?
BostonMomof3…where is your son going to go next year?
Boston University, Drexel, Temple and University of Rochester.
Have you done the research on film majors (many experts say a film major is unnecessary)? It would be a good idea to find a school where he can double major or minor in film so he can have a backup plan/options when he graduates.
I heavily recommend UNC Wilmington for film. If he likes NC School of the Arts, then he will very much enjoy UNCW, which is consistently rated as one of the top film schools in the nation. 10 minutes from the beach, medium-sized school, GORGEOUS campus, FANTASTIC community. It’d be a match for him with a 25+ on the ACT.